Cause and Effect, My Love
by midgewood58
Summary: Trinity recruits Harry Potter to fight the human's war, while dealing with her personal battles. HP-Matrix crossover-AU. CHAPTER 7: Neo encounters some rather unpleasant creatures in Hogsmeade.
1. Prologue

**Cause and Effect, My Love**   
BY Madeline Elster   
_Prologue_

**Disclaimer:** One of these characters is mine. She is not in this chapter. Everyone else is a figment of the imaginations of J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) and the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix). Their bases also are belong to Warner Brothers, and other various publishing companies such as Scholastic.

**Author's Notes:** Much heartfelt _grazie_ to my betas Apple, DeeDee, and Del. Special thanks to Apple and DeeDee, who allowed me to brainstorm with them. Your help with this fic is great!

~*~

Severus Snape leaned confidently on his black car outside of Hogsmeade Station. Students returning from their Christmas vacation were clutching their arms as their suitcases floated before them to the carriages waiting outside. Some students greeted him. If they were Slytherins, he greeted them back; if not, he sneered. Still he waited, even as the final student darted towards and collided gracefully with a closed carriage. What warmth he could feel was felt at the sound of a phone ringing in the station. 

The last person to exit was a slim woman in a black vinyl trench coat. She carried no luggage, and wore no scarf. Her face was grim. Mr. Snape found no delight in her choice to wear sunglasses when the sky was overcast and the white snow reflected no sun. He removed his scarf from where it hung around his neck and walked towards the woman. "That coat of yours won't keep you warm," he said aloud. "Here, take my scarf."

She met him mid-way in his path and courteously rejected the offer of the scarf. "Green and silver aren't my house colors," she said. "I hope you had a good Christmas vacation." 

"I didn't," he said. "I spent the whole of my 'good Christmas vacation' grading awful essays on Potions, not to mention keeping an eye out for any _troublesome meddlers_ during my spare time."

"There weren't any attacks, were there?" Mr. Snape shook his head, which he expected would be returned with an expression of gratitude he did not receive. The woman responded, "My students are doing fine. Most of them have a good understanding on the subject. Potter's my best student." Mr. Snape scowled, refraining from any comment beyond a suggestion to walk towards the car. The woman obeyed, and continued, "I didn't have a good Christmas vacation, either."

"Why not?" he asked. 

"In the car," said the woman. When they arrived at the car, Mr. Snape opened the door for her, and entered the car himself with haste to turn on the heat, refusing to drive until he was certain she was warm. "I'm fine, Severus. Don't worry about me."

"Only making sure a lady gets her comfort." Mr. Snape said, beginning to drive up the winding road towards the Castle. The white carriages pulled ahead of them. Snape mused, "I should be so lucky that your brute of a boyfriend isn't here."

The woman sighed and looked out the window. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Well!" Mister Snape expressed what his best lip service would describe as "concern" by raising his eyebrows and concealing a satisfied curl of the lip. "This is new. I certainly had no clue. Zion gossip doesn't reach as far as Hogwarts Base. _I'd_ be interested in hearing the tale, if you don't mind sharing."

"Neo and I broke up during vacation," and here, the woman sniffled, "we broke up because I…I found my cousin."

Mr. Snape stopped the car. "Did you? Find Thomas Black? The esteemed last heir of the Black family who disappeared with his mother when he was a child? The very boy everyone assumed was dead? Where was he?"

"In Zion."

"He _was_? For how long?"

"Seven months. Morpheus found him."

"He _did_?" Mr. Snape paused for thought. "But then you must have seen him, unless he was taken on to another ship.…"

"No. He was on the Nebuchadnezzar. For seven months. With us." She exhaled again and continued, "Severus, the reason why Neo and I broke up is because Neo is Thomas Black. Neo is my cousin."

Mr. Snape gave an exclamation. It was enough to know that Thomas Black had been found, but to learn that Thomas Black was the very bonehead Snape considered unworthy competition for the heart of his beloved Capella was too much to for his precious nerves to bear. Re-starting the car, Mr. Snape drove forward, and said, "Well…_that_…certainly…is…new."


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** None of these characters, and few of these situations, are mine or have come from my imagination. Harry Potter and his homies belong to and were created by J.K. Rowling, who shares her ownership with various publishing houses like Scholastic, and a movie studio named Warner Brothers. This movie studio also owns Ghost, Trinity, and their peeps from _The Matrix_, created by and owned also by the Wachowski brothers. No money is being made off of this story.

Author's notes are at the bottom.

~*~

**Chapter 1: What a Feeling**

Harry Potter claimed his final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was punctuated with a strange "feeling" in the beginning. Unable to articulate what that feeling was, he ignored it--a ritual he'd undergone many times when he felt the feeling before. The conversation between his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger proved an adequate distraction. The topic: missing entrepreneurs Fred and George Weasley, creators of the popular Weasley Wizard Wheezes joke shop franchise. They had been missing for two months. Ron and his family did not know where they were nor had they received any contact. Harry considered the Weasleys family; he took a natural interest in Fred and George's whereabouts.

The conversation was too short. The feeling was still there at its death, and he could not think of another distraction besides looking elsewhere. This distraction lead him to see Trinity and the program Argentina Cortez for the first time. They were sitting at the faculty table in the back of the Great Hall. Potter did not have a strong reaction to the two beyond their clothes. He otherwise hoped that neither of them were Death Eaters, or spies for Lord Voldemort. 

But before I can continue this narrative, I should explain all I am saying to you. The scene and situation beginning this narrative takes place in a culture unfamiliar to most of my readers. The "magical" community, for many incarnations of the Matrix, had been unknown to everyone except so-called "witches" and "wizards." These people were born with the ability to manipulate or alter certain parts of the Matrix. Through several versions the magical community formed a private society free from infringement by non-magical or antagonistic outsiders and certain programs. 

Harry Potter is an important figure in wizarding history. At age one he survived an attack on his parents and himself by Lord Voldemort. Voldemort, a wizard terrorist who rose to power in the 1970's of the final version and later in the 1990's, was bent on achieving immortality by means of different "spells," manipulations, and favors from programs in the Matrix hierarchy. He wanted to eliminate all "Muggles," or people born without "magic," and Muggle-born witches and wizards to establish a pureblood magical society.

Voldemort murdered the Potters at the height of his power. Potter was believed to have survived the attack due to a protective spell cast by his mother before she was murdered. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of the school at the time, linked Voldemort's motives to a prophecy made about a child born with the ability to defeat Voldemort. This prophecy could have been applied to another wizard, Neville Longbottom; but Voldemort chose Harry as his rival.

Harry faced Voldemort several times during his years at Hogwarts. Most times he barely escaped with his life. The Dark Lord (as Voldemort was called) was still at large during Potter's seventh year. It was expected that Potter would defeat him soon. Hogwarts remained safe through Voldemort's return, yet the school was still vulnerable to spies. Potter therefore had reason to be concerned for the trustworthiness of both new teachers. His first impressions of Argentina Cortez gave him no reason for concern. He did, however, begin to suspect that Trinity was a Death Eater.

~*~

**Author's Notes:** This is a revision of the original chapter one. There are several omissions here, made mainly because they were TMI (too much information), and secondly because I changed my mind on who the author of this "book" is. Chapter Two should be arriving soon.

Thanks to my betas Apple, DeeDee, and Del, and to shellebelle for her advice and support. God bless and peace be with you all! :)


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** None of these characters, and few of these situations, are mine or have come from my imagination. Harry Potter and his homies belong to and were created by J.K. Rowling, who shares her ownership with various publishing houses like Scholastic, and a movie studio named Warner Brothers. This movie studio also owns Trinity and her peeps from _The Matrix_, created by and owned also by the Wachowski brothers. No money is being made off of this story.

**Author's Notes I:** This chapter has some spoilers for _Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix_. If you have not read it but desire to do so, it is best that you withold from reading this fic until after you have read the book. It's very short. Only 870 pages long.

Also, please note that I have revised the prologue and chapter one. These are major revisions, so I suggest you read them over, if you have time.

More author's notes at the bottom.

**Chapter 2: Introducing Capella Black**

Lord Voldemort had supporters from all corners of magical establishment, but many of his followers were witches and wizards of aristocratic, pureblood families. Death Eaters from these families were difficult to convict because they were well associated. Whether most followed him willingly is "debatable," since many claimed blackmail, threats, and brainwashing forced them to join Voldemort. However, most of these families were, by their very mindset, natural followers of Voldemort.

The most notorious of these families were the Malfoys, the Lestranges, and the Blacks, all of whom were related by marriage. The Blacks are the most essential to our history. They were a highly dysfunctional family and considered themselves among the elite, the oldest and the purest of wizarding families. They hated Muggles or Muggle-Borns. Any relative who associated themselves with these people were instantly disowned, their names removed from the old family tapestry.

Of the last generation of Blacks, the name of Capella Black is noticeably absent from the tapestry. Capella Black was born to Auriga Black and his wife, Hydra--the youngest of three children and their only daughter. Two years after she was born, her parents removed her to the mansion of her uncle, Alphard, and his wife, Lucille. It was perhaps a hope of Auriga and Hydra to redeem a portion of Alphard's large fortune by allowing him to raise their daughter. As a result of her relocation, Capella never developed a close bond with her parents or older brothers Sirius and Regulus. Though already raising a son, Alphard and Lucille welcomed Capella without protest, seeking to treat her as their own daughter and raise her to their good own standards.

Alphard dedicated himself to productivity. He emphasized the importance of athleticism and skill work. Alphard was also skilled craftsman, specializing in the creation of magical devices. Capella took to her uncle's values quickly. She began to ride horses with him daily and helped with some of his inventions, including a special clock made specifically for Molly Weasley, a cousin of the Blacks, to trace the location of her immediate family members. Alphard's inventions had a strong influence on Capella's own inventions, which would come to revolutionize Resistance technology.

Alphard was pleased with Capella's apprenticeship enough to disregard that, while most witches and wizards show some ability at "magic" around the ages of two or three, Capella had shown no ability to perform magic by her eighth birthday. Her cousin Thomas Alphard Black, alternately, was a magical prodigy. His remarkable skill won him the favor of the Black family. He was also an unpleasant child. He had a constant need to be nurtured, never left his mother's side and was incapable of being self-sufficient. On his tenth birthday, his state had not changed at all.

For his tenth birthday party the Blacks enlisted the services of at least five bands, three of whom were popular wizard bands of the time; a traveling menagerie; catering from a popular restaurant in wizarding London; and a Seer. Thomas Black's birthday parties were always extravagant, a staple of high society. Several of the wealthiest and most famous witches and wizards attended his birthday parties out of loyalty to the Blacks or vanity, wanting to be seen among the elite. Capella spent most of her time at these celebrations with her oldest brother, Sirius. To her misfortune, Sirius had refused to attend the birthday party that year, choosing to spend that particular summer with his friend, James Potter. Luckily for her, the stables were open that night.

Capella had only one preferred horse in all of her uncle's stables--a black Welsh pony named Trinity. It remained unsaid that Trinity was Capella's pony. Riders left the pony alone out of approbation of how well suited the pony and the rider was. Over time, Capella and Trinity gained a small group of admirers who would stop to watch her ride. She was not surprised that night to find her pony waiting patiently in the stable--and that she had quickly acquired a small audience not soon after she had started to ride.

One of these spectators, Severus Snape, was attending his first Black party. While not of the same social class as the Blacks, Snape had, during his time at Hogwarts, the fortune of developing a close acquaintance with Lucius Malfoy, whose family always came to the birthday party. His business with Malfoy that night was to tour Alphard's stables. On the way to the stables, Snape requested to stop by the fence surrounding the riding fields. He was captivated by who he thought was a young boy riding a pony. He shortly discovered his assumption of the rider's gender to be an error: the rider greeted them with a distinctly feminine voice. Malfoy, having known Capella from past parties, introduced Snape to her briefly before Narcissa Black, Capella's cousin, who had just emerged from the mansion, interrupted his him. Narcissa dragged him back into the mansion to visit the Seer, leaving Capella and Snape alone. 

This new guest intrigued Capella. She wondered whether he liked horses. Snape was not expert at riding. His family could not afford the luxuries of frequent horse riding. But he enjoyed riding, and was curious to see her uncle's stables. She eagerly agreed to show him. She also wondered if he would ride with her. She rarely had ridden with anyone other than Alphard. Snape reluctantly agreed to a short race around the track on one of Alphard's horses. This "short" race turned into several. Snape, convinced his borrowed horse could beat Trinity, lost every race. He often complained that Capella was playing tricks, or that he "wasn't ready that time." Nevertheless, he arrived to a point where he could grudgingly admit that Capella was a fine rider, Trinity a fine pony, and himself in need of improvement. Capella afterwards agreed to stop racing and invited him to visit her family and ride with her if he could, promising to help him with his riding skills (though she was eight and he twelve). Snape was hesitant to accept. Capella restated that she would be expecting him, but he was in no way obligated to come.

Neither of them were distracted enough from this conversation to notice a commotion coming from the mansion. Capella noticed it only when she heard a thud and saw the horse she had loaned to Severus on the ground. Outside the fence, Thomas Black was aiming his father's wand at Snape. She was not sure what he said, but he appeared jealous. Capella demanded he go away. Thomas complied, returning to the mansion, demanding for his mother. He had mistakenly left his father's wand on the ground. Agitated, Capella picked it up and held it in her hand, asking Snape if he knew any spells that would cure a stunned horse. 

Thomas returned with his mother, Lucille, who politely insisted Capella return to the party and accompany her son. Again, Capella refused. Already agitated at Thomas, Lucille opened the gate of the fence, yanked Capella out and began to lecture her about being disobedient. Capella defended herself and denied any disobedience on her part. She was not obligated to obey her cousin's demands. Lucille did not want to hear this. Taking the hands of her son and Capella, she forcefully joined them together and pushed them in the direction of the mansion. Thomas was instantly happy with this. Capella was not. She tried to remove her hand from Thomas' grip, but he was holding her hand too hard. Alphard's wand was in her free hand. She began to beat his hand with the wand, to no avail. She succeeded only when she became enraged and pointed the wand in the direction of his feet, causing him to flip in the air and land on the ground. By then his hand lost its grip on Capella's. This was Capella's first sign of magic.

Lucille, in a strange mood, refused to speak to her niece after the incident. Capella went to her uncle instead, wanting to know the reason for her cousin's strange behavior. Alphard explained that during the party, Thomas visited the Seer. After his reading, Thomas immediately began looking for Capella. He never explained why. Capella never found out what the Seer prophesied until she was thirty-two years old.

**Author's Notes II:** There has been new canon released between the time I posted chapter one and the time I posted chapter two. That would be an increadible feat had not the canon been for _Matrix_ canon and not Harry Potter canon. I warn you that there may be new HP canon by the time I'm finished chapter three. Apologies for being so slow--real life and the like are my excuses.

Huge thanks to DeeDee, Apple, and shellebelle for their support, their betaing, and their willingless to let me rant idly about my own work. More huge thanks to SQ Workshop 2 (Kellie, jessandi, ashavah, Ara Kane, shellebelle, chary, and anyone who's been forgotten...sorry) for their feedback. Peace be with you all. :)


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters, concepts, and situations created by J.K. Rowling and the Wackowski Brothers. "Harry Potter" belongs to J.K. Rowling, and is owned by her, various publishing companies (including Bloomsbury Books, Schoolastic Books, and Raincoast Books), and Warner Brothers, Inc. "The Matrix" belongs to Larry and Andy Wackowski, Warner Brothers, Inc., and Village Roadshow. I am not using these characters/concepts/situations with their permission, nor am is any money being made from this story.

_Author's notes are at the bottom._

~*~

**Chapter 3: Minus One**

Hogwarts fell under a brief dilemma when its librarian, Miss Pince, requested an indeterminate sabbatical. She could no longer handle the stress of working beside people involved in the war with Voldemort. The situation hindered productivity and harmed her mental sanity. She thought it best to quit before things got out of hand. Despite the opposition from Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore allowed Pince to leave. He found a candidate who could replace her, for the Matrix had a dissatisfied librarian of its own.

Argentina Cortez arrived in England a few days after Pince's departure. She had left her work base in America for reasons similar to Pince's. The war with the Resistance had grown to an uncomfortable level, and as a result one of her close associates had died. She believed the safety of all programs had been jeopardized. England would be a better location for them since Resistance activity was minimal and Voldemort's threat did not extend to programs. Cortez had no intention of continuing her work in England, her reasons being that there would be difficulty running a database as extensive as hers over a long distance. However she did not delay to apply to Hogwarts when she heard of the opening. She knew little about Hogwarts, enough to know that it provided extreme protection for its staff and student body. She was unaware that Hogwarts was a breeding ground of Resistance activity-neither did Dumbledore know that she was a program aligned with the Matrix. Cortez showed no visible signs of threat; Dumbledore had to trust her. There were no other candidates available. She was hired soon after her first interview.

As Hogwarts librarian Cortez was cordial and helpful when approached, yet kept distant and generally did not initiate conversations. Students liked her despite this, mostly because she was more lenient than their previous librarian. She kept the library in order and made it so that browsing was far easier than it had been in their entire academic careers. The library was under a spell of efficiency none could replicate. Through all this Cortez remained aloof, neither threatening humans nor welcoming them. She desired the company of her associate more than any protection Hogwarts could offer.

~*~

Trinity found no compensation for loneliness in her students, who found her curriculum complicated and unorthodox. She placed an unprecedented emphasis on physical maneuvers as means of defense against the Dark Arts, procedures that the students themselves found difficult to perform. It appeared to them that she was making her course challenging so all would fail-especially Harry Potter. Nothing that Harry did pleased her. She pushed him the hardest and grew more frustrated with him during every class.

It was natural that Harry would come to suspect her of being a follower of Voldemort. He had been observing her with caution, noticing things that made him distrustful of her. Her first class started on the wrong note: a lecture on the Unforgivable Curses (three illegal spells used often by Voldemort and his followers), stating that she had the fullest intention to use them in class. The teacher who had done this before had been a Death Eater. Trinity had a close relationship with Severus Snape, a man who Harry knew for a fact to be a Death Eater, and whom he still suspected to have ulterior motives despite cooperation with Dumbledore. He suspected Snape and Trinity's close bond to be a result of a common foundation in Voldemort. 

His friends did not accept his theory on Trinity as they had before. Hermione Granger in particular listed many reasons why Trinity could not be a Death Eater-and all of them dealt with her support of Muggle culture. She wore Muggle clothes and often suggested that in certain situations the best combat methods were Muggle combat methods. Unlike Snape she was not biased towards Slytherin, one of Hogwart's four dormitory-like "houses" (the others being Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor), and the house associated with all "Dark" wizards. She had a particular affection for the house of Hufflepuff, usually ignored and ridiculed among the rest of the four houses. 

That being considered Trinity still had a "dark" air about her. She did not have a warm personality and had a low tolerance for insolent behavior. She seemed to be hiding something or someone. Some students believed that, if she were not a dark witch, she must have been a criminal. Her clothing supported this theory. She wore what was standard for her: tight clothes made entirely of black polyvinyl chloride with a long coat and heeled boots. She also had begun to wear gloves because of the cold. However, Dumbledore, concerned that her clothing was a distraction, convinced her to change into less diverting clothing. She complied and started to wear more conservative clothing made of fabrics other than PVC and leather. She continued wearing the same coat outside.

Trinity had other social failings outside of Hogwarts. Her decision to join the Hogwarts staff for a year was widely disputed by the Council. Their objection based itself on her prominent role in the Resistance as a skilled fighter and a high-ranking fleet officer. Though the _Nebachadnezzar_ had Neo, he and Morpheus alone were not sufficient to undertake the ship's tasks without Trinity. Her technical skill in machinery and hacking surpassed those of her shipmates. Trinity, acknowledging their concerns, said she would be available to do the same tasks at Hogwarts, though she would not be available to do them as a mobile soldier. She could continue to work on her non-combative duties with more interrupted time and safety at Hogwarts. Reluctantly, the Council conceded to let her stay at Hogwarts Base for six months during the school year. This minor dispute bothered her little.

The last month before she would begin teaching presented a new problem: Neo. It was her misfortune to have helped find him so soon before September first, and now, having found whom she then thought her true love, was forced to tell him they would not share the same ship for six months. This very reason gave her the most trouble. She held fast her desire to teach, but success seemed meaningless now that the One had been found. The war would be over soon if the prophecy was true. She wanted to fight beside him and bring an end to the war, which she could not do teaching at a school inside the Matrix. But she had a doubt over her love for Neo that few knew or suspected. A sudden separation would leave no time for her to discover if she truly loved him or the concept of the One. 

As expected, Neo did not receive the news positively. He hated the concept and used such reasoning as was his to dissuade her from teaching. The job was too dangerous, he would say. Any job inside the Matrix possessed a danger of discovery by Agents. The supposed security Hogwarts provided against Agents did not guarantee her safety. Her profile was too prominent. She would be known; there was no telling whom she could trust to keep her identity secret. The only good solution he saw to Trinity's problem was himself: If she insisted on going to Hogwarts, he would go with her. His argument was passionate and almost convinced Trinity to quit; but Trinity had reasons to persist in teaching that not even Neo could debase. 

~*~

**Author's Notes:** J.K. Rowling's still working on Harry Potter 6, so I guess I'm in your good graces, no? ;) I'd love to give many excuses on why it took me so long to write this chapter, but there are none. So I'll answer some of your questions instead:

Vampiric-Ant: Agent Smith will be in this story but it will be a while before he shows up. He has to regenerate.or whatever he did to pop up again. As for Trinity lying about her genealogy, she would love it for it all to be a lie; unfortunately it isn't.

Blackheart Syaoran: Trinity won't be scaring any Slytherins, except for maybe Draco if he provokes her enough. ;)

Special, heartfelt thanks to the workshoppers: Ara, Kellie, Alchemilla, and Shelles. Shells, thank you so much for talking with me about my story. Apple, thank you for your honest beta reading. Peace be with you all. :)


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** None of these characters, and few of these situations, are mine or have come from my imagination. Harry Potter and his homies belong to and were created by J.K. Rowling, who shares her ownership with various publishing houses like Scholastic, and a movie studio named Warner Brothers. This movie studio also owns Trinity and her peeps from _The Matrix_, created by and owned also by the Wachowski brothers. No money is being made off of this story.

**Author's Notes I:** Ack! My apologies for updating this so late. This chapter actually has been done for months, I just never got around to uploading it on to FF.N. In compensation I will be posting this and Chapter 5 at the same time. Anyone who gets the joke about the school gets 100 house points!

More author's notes at the bottom.

~*~

  
**Chapter Four: Relative Unknowns**   
_Harry discovers a forgotten piece of Black history._

Harry Potter spent the summer of 1999 in away from his relatives, the Dursleys. It was not his choice. He had long wanted to spend an entire summer away from their home in Little Whinging, yet his new circumstance was a necessity more than it was wish fulfillment. A day before he returned from Hogwarts, Death Eaters had attacked the Dursley home and burned it completely to the ground. The Dursleys survived, but no longer did they wish to see Harry. Despite Dumbledore's warnings they refused to take Harry back in with them. It was therefore necessary to keep Harry in a safe place away from the attacks of Voldemort.

The safest place Harry could be was 13 Grimmauld Place, the very last house he wanted to be in after the death of his godfather Sirius. His only consolation came in the presence of Remus Lupin, a friend and former classmate of Sirius and James and Lily Potter. Harry found comfort in knowing that Remus was safe, although still unemployed, and took pleasure in his company. But there were some things Remus could not remove from Harry's mind. He missed Sirius, and being in Sirius' former home made Harry miss him more. He was also keenly aware of the dark nature of 13 Grimmauld Place and was reminded all the more of the threat that awaited him just outside the door.

Harry occupied himself that summer with his studies, trying to live a normal life despite his worries. Lupin tried to distract Harry by helping him with schoolwork and teaching him a few advanced spells. He also filled Harry's time with stories of the past, mostly stories concerning his parents during and after school. These stories left Harry dissatisfied, as if Remus were hiding information from him. He would soon be seventeen, an adult according to his country's standards. He knew he could not search for information himself without fear of disaster, but he was likely never to learn the truth if he continued to be treated as a child.

He was content to limit his private search to wanderings around the house. No news of Voldemort's current activities could be found in the house, he knew, but he would think himself successful if he uncovered an untold piece of history that helped him to make sense of the present. He did come across one such artifact: a picture of a girl and a man he did not recognize. At the time he had no idea that the picture had anything to do with him.

He found the picture in the room Sirius had shared with the creature Buckbeak. Rarely did Harry ever wander into the rooms where Sirius slept, but curiosity drew him in. It was a hope of his that Sirius had saved some of the photographs found in the house when he had moved back in two years prior. That same year Sirius had purged what he could of the Black family's old possessions--family portraits, heirlooms, anything that reminded him of his family.

Some portraits had been salvaged by the family house-elf, Kreacher, though those he suspected Sirius to have found later and destroyed. Sirius had reason to destroy these photographs, as they were of his mother and his cousins who had become Death Eaters or were married to one. Unlike these photographs, the ones Harry found were of people Harry did not know, and all of them seemingly of the same two people--a man and a little girl. They both looked related to Sirius.

He focused on one picture in particular. They were standing in a horse stable, dressed in riding clothes. The girl looked no older than ten. Her face was stern and quiet, and her posture firm. The man was, by far, more relaxed. He was smiling. In one of his hands he held his wand; the other was placed on the girl's shoulder. The photograph was most unlike regular wizard photographs; there was little movement involved. Occasionally the girl would look to her right outside of the photograph, or look up to the man, but her stare focused mainly on the camera.

Harry flipped the photograph over to see if any names were written. There were none. He tried to pry the photograph out of the frame, and while doing so Remus Lupin entered the room, looking for Harry. Harry showed him the photograph. Lupin recognized the two at once. The man was Sirius' uncle, and the girl Sirius' sister.

Harry was amazed. He knew that Sirius had two uncles, but of a sister he knew nothing. He immediately asked Lupin of information regarding this newfound sister of Sirius'. Lupin responded in a somber tone that Sirius had a sister named Capella who had been moved to the home of Alphard Black when she was two and had not often seen Sirius afterwards. Her name was either removed from the tapestry because of her refusal to lend her parents the money she inherited from Alphard or to return to England after Alphard's death, or her name had not been added at all since her parents did not want her.

Of the man, Alphard, Lupin knew more than Sirius had told Harry. He was the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation from 1962 until his death in 1981. A year before he died he sent Capella away to be educated at the Baltimore Institute for Learning Better Overall, a magical school in the United States that taught the arts and sciences along with magic. He gave her no reason for sending her away. When she returned the next year, Alphard was dead.

This new history of the Blacks intrigued Harry. He wondered why Sirius had never told him about his sister or of his uncle. Lupin had no answer. Instead, he invited Harry to return downstairs to his studies, and suggested he not give much thought to the story he had just heard. Lupin left then, and Harry, while Lupin's back was turned, placed the photograph in his pocket. He never had the opportunity to visit that room again.

~*~

**Author's Notes II:** Special thanks to workshoppers shelles and JK for their indespensible input, and Apple for her beta. God Bless and peace be with you all! :) 


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** None of these characters, and few of these situations, are mine or have come from my imagination. Harry Potter and his homies belong to and were created by J.K. Rowling, who shares her ownership with various publishing houses like Scholastic, and a movie studio named Warner Brothers. This movie studio also owns Trinity and her peeps from _The Matrix_, created by and owned also by the Wachowski brothers. No money is being made off of this story.

**Author's Notes I:** The title of this chapter comes from a song by the band Broadcast. Jolly good band.

More author's notes at the bottom.

~*~

  
**Chapter 5: The Book Lovers**   
_A new occupant of the library waits for Trinity._

Hermione Granger noticed a new occupant of the Hogwarts Library who was not Argentina Cortez. He was an adult male, tall, with black hair and a matching suit. He kept to himself and spoke to no one. She saw him often in the library, waiting patiently for someone. Hermione did not find out who that person was, for she left well before he met whom he waited for.

It was Harry and Ron who discovered the identity of both the man and the person he waited for. While Harry and Ron were studying before dinner, Harry noticed Trinity enter the library. He captured Ron's attention, and both watched as she walked to the man Hermione had described to them earlier. Trinity and the man embraced and addressed each other by name. His name, if Harry and Ron heard correctly, was Neo. Though he would be absent for many days, a week never passed without Harry, Ron, or Hermione seeing Neo in the library. They spied on him to see any signs that indicated a Dark wizard, as Harry remained suspicious of Trinity and supposed that none connected to her was good. But there was no indication that he was more than an innocuous visitor who just so happened to be connected to Trinity.

His presence began to be a given one. Students caught on quickly that he was Trinity's lover, only fueling the hatred some female students had for her. Hermione again became irritated at the teenaged girls who flooded the library for the sake of ogling, which they had done before when a popular sports star had visited the school. The difference was that Neo, for all Hermione knew, was not famous, and that he waited for another woman, not for her. Hermione and Neo did not interact until they happened to be scanning through the media archives at the same time. Hermione was so engaged in her search that she did not notice Neo looking as if he desired to speak to her. He caught her attention when she distractedly looked away from the drawer in his direction. She asked if he needed help. He did.

He noticed that she was taking less time to find things in the archive than he. This was a simple explanation: Cortez had set up a special system through which the students could find any issue of a newspaper or magazine stocked in the library without searching for it manually. All they had to do was locate the cabinet labeled with the name of the periodical, apply the tip of their wand to the button below the label and state the issue number and date. The issue would then appear in a slot at the bottom of the cabinet. To return the issue, all one had to do was place it back into the slot. The issue would replace itself. 

Neo found this very efficient. He stated he did not have a wand, but went about doing the steps Hermione had told him with his index finger in place of a wand. To his surprise, and to Hermoine's, when he said the issue number and date of the _Witch Weekly_ he wanted the magazine soared out of the slot and hit Neo across the forehead. Hermione stood with her mouth agape, while Neo rubbed the spot where he had been hit by the magazine. Neo finally reached down and picked up the magazine from the floor, and Hermione, in a moment of nerve, asked him why he was looking through _Witch Weekly_ when it was a woman's magazine. He explained that he was looking for a specific issue containing an article on Trinity. Hermione pushed the questioning further, wondering why Trinity would be in Witch Weekly. According to Neo, Trinity claimed to have been the focus of the wizarding media's attention for many years, being a member of a prominent wizarding family and a live-in relative of a foremost politician. Hermione was intrigued, and continued the conversation hoping that he would specify which family Trinity belonged to. That information remained unspecified, as just then Trinity appeared and pulled Neo away to her office.

Afterwards Hermione met with Harry and Ron in the Great Hall and relayed to them all the information she had gathered from her meeting with Neo. Harry and Ron were equally as curious to know which family Trinity belonged to. Hermione proposed that she do research based on what little information she had. The other two agreed, and Hermione resolved to go to the library the next day to begin her newest research project.

They exited the Great Hall soon after to return to their dormitories. Harry, however, remembered that he had left a book on the table inside and turned to retrieve it. In doing so, he ran into Trinity, who was talking with Professor Snape. All of the contents of Harry's bag fell on the floor. He apologized and began to pick up his items without noticing that Trinity had bent down to help him. Indeed, he did not notice her at all until they both reached for the same thing: the photograph he had found in 13 Grimmauld Place.

Harry was too startled to hold firm to the photograph; and so she took it from him, surveying it with furrowed brows. She returned the photograph to Harry cautiously, saying, "Nice picture." She then returned to Snape, who had been waiting impatiently for Trinity to return to their conversation. Harry continued to watch her as she walked down the hall. He felt that he had strayed into a dream with a specific purpose he could not understand, and as she was about to turn the corner Trinity gave Harry a mysterious glance.

~*~

**Author's Notes II:** Special thanks to workshoppers shelles and Ara Kane, and Apple for her beta. God Bless and peace be with you all! :) 


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** One of these characters is mine. She is not in this chapter. Everyone else is a figment of the imaginations of J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) and the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix). Their bases also are belong to Warner Brothers, and other various publishing companies such as Scholastic.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to my reviers, Trinity Potter, CarmenSandeigo19, and Divamercury. Special thanks to my beta, Apple QB, and workshoppers shellebelle and Ara Kane.

  
  
**Chapter 6: Catherine Edgar**   
_A students celebrates the beginning of the school year alone._

It was late in the afternoon when Catherine Edgar entertained herself at a playground not far from the Baltimore Institute of Learning Better Overall. She decided it was better to spend time alone than to bother with the students moving into their dormitories. She promised to return for that night's Opening Ceremony, if only for the food. Socializing was not on her agenda.

Neither was meeting her new roommate right away. She had grown accustomed to greeting her old roommate at night, but that roommate had left the school last year, depressed and homesick. Catherine briefly considered whether she had contributed to her roommate's unhappiness, then convinced herself she hadn't. If she had, there was very little she could do about it now except hope that there were no hard feelings between the two of them.

She sat down on a swing with her arms shoved in her pockets, and made the swing move with her mind. She was quite proud of that fact, and disliked that no one was there to see her do it. Her ears ached for praise, but none was given to her save the soft applause of the rustling leaves. This did not appease her pride. She shoved her feet into the sand below the swing and stopped abruptly, brooding. The empty swing next to her swung freely. She stared at it bitterly, hoping in some vague way that it would soon be occupied. Her real friends knew when she was down and were always there to comfort her. But they had not been visiting her recently. They had been just as invisible to her as they had been to other people. Catherine supposed that if she worked herself into a good humor they would visit her now like they did in her childhood. She did, thinking of the food she would eat tonight, and eagerly looked around the playground for her friends.

Presently she saw two teenagers walking towards her. She knew one of them as Michael Song, a classmate of hers at the Institute. The other she did not know; neither this person nor Michael was the type of friend she looked for. She frowned and gloomily examined the stranger, a very skinny person with short black hair, dressed in jeans, a blue t-shirt and light black jacket. She was not sure whether this person was a girl or a boy; she guessed the person to be a girl from the way she walked. From this she also gathered that the girl might be wealthy, as she had the sophisticated gait common to rich students at the Institute.

As the two teenagers drew closer, Catherine started to swing her legs. "Hello, Michael," she said to the approaching. He greeted her back, asked how she had been over the summer. Catherine stalled. To say she had been lonely would be to suggest melancholy, that she did not have any fun, and that her life was not as favorable as she wanted it to be. Instead of telling Michael the truth, she told him a lie. "I had a great summer! Miss Jackson and I went to the beach, like, every weekend. It was a lot of fun. So who's your friend?"

Michael introduced her as Capella Black, a new student at the Institute. Capella came from England and had been a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry before she transferred to the Institute. Catherine nodded her head. The girl was indeed wealthy, perhaps wealthier than anybody at the Institute. She wondered, though, why she was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and not in more elegant clothing. Perhaps she was making a statement that she was like the rest of them. Or perhaps she was trying hard to make friends.

Capella gave a polite greeting and said little afterwards. Michael then launched discussion regarding this year's textbooks. He was very interested in discussing the various theories presented in them, and wondered if the teachers would go over them in depth during class. Catherine, however, paid more attention to Capella than she did Michael. She noticed something peculiar about Capella, besides that she was wealthy but dressed as if she were middle-class. It appeared as if she were trying to solve a mystery entailing her present surroundings, but could not quite identify the problem. Catherine smirked and said, "How do you feel, Capella?"

"All right, I suppose."

"Are you sure?"

Capella nodded, then looked to Michael for an answer to Catherine's odd behavior. Michael shrugged. He then offered to go to a bookstore and look for books to read. Capella thought this to be a fine idea and followed him, both expressing their desire to see Catherine at a later time. Catherine returned the sentiments and watched them leave, a wave of bitter resentment taking over her as a certain revelation came to her. "It's not fair," she said. "You both get to leave, but I have to stay here. It's just not fair!" She twisted the swing and let herself sway.

Moments later Catherine had a frightening intuition. She felt the presence of something approaching. She surveyed the playground. No one was there. She looked to the forest. Still no one. Then she looked to her left towards the street. A man in a green suit moved toward her. She stopped the swing and took flight to the forest. She hoped she had left fast enough for him not to see her. She ran across a path leading from the forest to the school, paved after many years' pilgrimage from one point to the other. Because of her speed she could not hear if the man pursued her. She hoped he wasn't.

Soon she reached the dormitories. She did not stop to say hello to anyone, but went directly to her room and searched for her diary and pen. When she found both lying under her bed, she wrote in a frantic hand:

"_I saw HIM today._"

Catherine closed the diary and laid it on her bed. She looked outside the window cautiously to see if the man had followed her. He didn't. She let out a relieved sigh. She then wondered whether to send an owl to the Oracle right away. She decided to do it later; she was too frightened to go back outside just yet.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** Catherine Edgar is mine, but she's not in this chapter. Everyone else is a figment of the imaginations of J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) and the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix). Their bases also are belong to Warner Brothers, and other various publishing companies such as Scholastic. 

**Author's Notes:** Special thanks to workshoppers shellebelle and JK for their insight, and Apple QB for her beta. Thanks also to Divamercury and Blackheart Syaoran for their reviews. . Enjoy, and God Bless! :)

**Chapter 7: The Dementors**

Every so often the students of Hogwarts were allowed a daylong trip to the nearby village of Hogsmeade. Teachers used this time to catch up on grades; some even used the time to go to the village themselves. For the school's first trip of the year, Trinity chose to go to village as a way to relax from what was becoming a tumultuous year, and she insisted Neo come along.

With much reluctance from Morpheus, Neo was allowed to go that day. He was to use an entrance and exit point in the train station near the school, which had been intended strictly for "emergencies." Now it had become a social tool, as Neo had used it to visit Trinity at Hogwarts. This time, he was to walk to Hogsmeade and wait for her at the Three Broomsticks, one of the town's pubs. She forewarned that she would be late, having to settle some business with Severus Snape before going into town. What Neo did not know is that he would be ambushed, but not by Trinity.

Not knowing this, however, Neo went into town in a better mood than he had ever been in going inside the Matrix. Any other time would he have been tense, but now, knowing that Trinity was his mission, and knowing well how this area was immune to agents, he had no reason to worry, and entered the Three Broomsticks thinking of his love.

As was usual for him he had no reaction to the town or the bar. He saw them for what they were: code, code that he could manipulate and bend to his will. The thing that concerned him most at that moment was to find as private as possible a spot for himself and Trinity inside the Three Broomsticks. That seemed an impossible feat the moment he stepped inside. It was full of students, teachers, and others who took up all the tables. After much examination he finally found a table at the far right of the bar that was completely empty. Next to it was a table occupied by a single student.

That student, as it turned out, was Hermione Granger, who happened to be studying. Neo remembered her from the library, and said hello as he sat down to the table next to hers. Hermione looked surprised to see him, and told him as much. She wondered what he was doing there. "Waiting for Trinity," he said. "What else would I be doing?"

Hermione chuckled. She should have known. Jokingly she said she would relocate to another table the moment Trinity arrived so the both of them could be in private. As for now, she planned to stay exactly where she was and continue her studies. Curious, Neo asked, "What's that you're studying?"

She was studying for a major examination, the N.E.W.T.s, to be taken later in the year.

"Kind of like a standardized test, right?"

Precisely.

Neo remained silent for a few moments, thinking to himself about Hermione's present situation. He felt guilty that he, a free man, was having a friendly conversation with someone who was still enslaved. Acting on this feeling, he said, "Hermione, do you ever get the feeling that your studying is done in vain?"

Hermione found the question strange, but answered it nonetheless. Yes she did feel at times that her studying was done in vain; the payoff was receiving high grades for studying so hard.

"That's not exactly what I was talking about. What if…what if you found out that your time here at school was wasted on something that didn't exist?"

This question annoyed Hermione somewhat, and she asked what he was trying to achieve by asking such things.

Neo dropped the subject. "Nothing. There are some things about this world that you probably wouldn't understand."

Like wearing sunglasses indoors? That was her retort. She asked why he always wore them inside when there was no need for them.

"Afraid I can't reveal that reason to you, Hermione." He pulled his glasses down to the tip of his nose. "Top secret. If I tell you anything I'll have to kill you."

Hermione laughed as Neo returned his sunglasses to their proper position. They continued their chat for a while until Neo realized the time. Trinity had told him to arrive there at 3:15, with explanation that she would be there ten minutes later. It was now 3:33, and Trinity was nowhere in site. Neo stood up. "I don't mean to be rude, Hermione, but it's… Trinity's kind of late. I'm going to go outside and look for her. It was nice talking to you." Hermione expressed the same sentiments, and wished him a good day before he left the Three Broomsticks and entered the main street.

Neo didn't know where to begin his search. He presumed that if he searched the town thoroughly enough he would find her. So, the moment he stepped outside he turned to his left and walked down the busy street, peering into every shop and restaurant for Trinity. He went significant ways down the street without finding any sign of her. Frustrated, he turned and walked up a narrow alleyway next to another pub, stopped next to a wooden door and removed his cell phone from his inner coat pocket. He did not know if Trinity had her cell phone on her, but calling her was his only chance of finding her. He dialed his number and listened to the phone ring, just as an old woman tugging a very large and covered cart passed the alley.

Trinity did not answer. He hung up the phone and dialed again, with still no answer from Trinity. With every failed call he grew more and more aggravated, and felt at that moment the slightest tinge of jealousy, wondering what it was exactly that Trinity was doing with Snape. Neo was preparing to leave the alley just then when he felt something strange begin to occur. The air grew cold, colder than it had been on that October afternoon. Though he could not see the light, he could see its code, and perceived that it darkened all about him. Faintly in the street he could hear people screaming. He turned to exit the alley and stopped. Coming towards him were three wide, black and empty holes inside the Matrix code.

His immediate reaction was to fight them, but he could not take one step further, for at that moment it felt as if all the energy was being sucked right out of him. Instead of taking a step forward, he fell on his knees, apparently at the mercy of the three voids that now stood before him. Neo tried to fight against them with his mind, remembering where he was, and the reality of it, to no avail. He did not feel free, he did not feel resolve, he did not feel anything. He felt nothing, only numbness inside, numbness he was powerless to fight.

Around this time he began to think of Trinity: of how she was late, of how he had not found her, of how much time she spent with Snape, of his jealousy, of every unpleasant thing he could think of in relation to Trinity. He began to think that she did not love him, that she had forgotten him and left him at the Three Broomsticks alone while she was off with Snape. He tried again to remind himself that it wasn't real, to no avail.

Then he saw his mother. It was the strangest and most unpleasant vision he had ever had. He was no longer in the alley, indeed he felt as if he were no longer Neo, but little Thomas Anderson watching his mother die. They were huddled together in a room, hiding underneath a bed, while flames engulfed the room they were in. His mother was crying, holding him close to her chest, telling him that everything would be fine, that they would escape from the fire and be free from death. Neo tried to remind himself that it wasn't real, to no avail.

The fires grew more furious. It was closer to the bed now. Suddenly they heard a snap above them, and heard something fall. It hit the bed where they hid hard. It hit where his mother's head was. She went limp. He screamed, but the roaring fire concealed his screams. Everywhere about him was unbearable heat. He passed out and knew nothing more.


End file.
